Beautiful Day In the Carolinas

We had an overcast day yesterday, with predictions of rain for most of it. That didn't pan out, save for a brief shower in the early afternoon and a downpour in the late afternoon. Apparently it was a cold front coming through, because the weather today is a dry, high pressure, cloudless day, one of those days with a sky of sapphire blue. Won't be too many more of these this spring; soon the hot and humid southern summer will be here for the next six months. I plan to get out today, maybe take my camera and hit the road briefly for a BBQ restaurant review. Haven't done one of those for a while.

Hope all of you are having a nice Saturday.

Carolina Renaissance Festival Photos

Here with a few photos from the Carolina Renaissance Festival.

He Has A Better View Than You Do.

Belly Dancers.

The Tortuga Twins.

Comic Duellists Don Juan & Miguel Camp It Up.

Light Posting Today

I'm going to the Carolina Renaissance Festival this morning, and will be gone most of the day. Catch all of you later!

He Lived His Dream

Andy Barker, who founded his own Old West town right here in North Carolina, has died at the age of 87.

I visited Love Valley last year, and wrote about it here.

Noted in the news article is the fact that the Allman Brothers Band once hosted a rock concert from Love Valley. Man, that would have been something to see.

Here's a pic:



Anyway, old Mr. Barker had a dream, and made it into a reality. Not all of us get to do that in this world. My condolences to his family.

A Future Road Trip, Perhaps?

Shiloh Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

Shiloh Presbyterian Church Cemetery - most of it in southern Cleveland County - dates from 1780, the year a pivotal Revolutionary War battle raged on nearby Kings Mountain. Lt. Col. Frederick Hambright, a key Patriot commander, is buried in Shiloh along with others who fought there. More than 100 stones mark veterans of the War of 1812, the Civil War and early settlers. John Bishop Harry, state senator from Lincoln County in 1835, is also there.

The cemetery's age and the people buried there are important parts of the nomination. But new research has led to another focus: Shiloh's gravestone art. Master craftsmen like Robert Caveny decorated the markers with folk motifs such as quarter sunbursts, eight-pointed stars, willows and trees of life.

This article cries out for a photo gallery, but the Observer didn't bother to provide one. Damnit.

Old Salem

Sara and I visited Old Salem on Saturday. Old Salem is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and is a Moravian community dating from 1766. George Washington visited the community as President.

I'll just post a bunch of pics for your viewing pleasure. You can see everything there is to see in just a few hours. We had perfect weather: sunny, dry and mild.







What Am I? Please Answer In Comments.











Tie Your Horse Up To Me.









I was remiss in not taking photographs of interiors, especially of crafters at work. Old Salem has demonstrations of basketmaking, pottery, blacksmithing, gunsmithing, carpentry, joinery, a working bakery, etc. I notice I didn't take many pictures featuring fellow tourists. I tend to take photos of buildings and objects, not people or animals. Probably a reflection of my misanthropic personality.

There are three eateries in the historic area. The Tavern features German/Moravian cuisine as well as American favorites. Sara and I ate at Mayberry Restaurant, above the bakery. American cuisine/ice cream.

Fun trip.

Road Trip Today

Going to Old Salem today with Sara. Report and pics when we get back. Hopefully a BBQ review will be involved, as well. Everyone have a nice day.

Restaurant Review: Log Cabin BBQ, Albemarle, NC

Saturday I was flying solo, my partner-in-crime Sara was battling an illness of some sort. I decided to go to the Albemarle, North Carolina area to visit Morrow Mountain State Park to see fall foliage. There are also a couple of barbecue restaurants in the Albemarle area that I haven't yet visited. Both of these are on US 52.

I first tried Whispering Pines BBQ:



Whispering Pines BBQ is a very small restaurant, not much bigger than a classic diner, with a half-dozen booths and a lunch counter; they also have a huge woodpile out back, always a promising sight to a barbecue lover:



Unfortunately for me, Whispering Pines was already full of diners at just after noon, all booths and counter space taken, so I headed up the road to the other BBQ place on US 52, Log Cabin BBQ:





Here's the menu:



Aaaaand here's the food, a pork plate:



The pork was a good mix of outside brown and inside white, chopped fine. It was a little dry, so I added some of the Lexington-style sauce: mostly vinegar, but some tomato and red pepper flakes; pretty good sauce, actually. Since the "roll" listed on the menu turned out to be a toasted hamburger bun, I used part of the pork to make a sandwich. Fries were the usual crinkle-cuts, and the hush puppies were edible, if a little bland. The drink, a Diet Coke, included a small pitcher so I could pour my own refills, a nice touch. The waitress was polite, friendly and prompt.

I'll give Log Cabin BBQ a 3 on my 5-rating of BBQ restaurants: 3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management.

Saturday Ramblings

Saturday Sara and I decided to visit Love Valley, North Carolina. Love Valley was created by Andy Barker in 1954; he wanted a Christian community in his native state that looked like a cowboy town from the Old West.

The Wikipedia entry notes that the community is "100% white." Sara and I can vouch for that; we didn't see anyone in Love Valley who wasn't extremely white. To emphasize their whiteness, many of them wore the Confederate Battle Flag either as a clothing device or an accessory; we saw a Confederate Flag horse blanket on one horse, and even saw one bearded rider in a Civil War Confederate Kepi cap. They were very white. Very polite and gracious, too.

There were lots of riders there, apparently the place is a favorite weekend destination for horse owners.

Here's a few pics I took:













We decided to refrain from "dinning" (sic) at the "resturant" (sic) on the principle of if they're sloppy with their spelling, they're sloppy with the food. I'm sure we probably missed a great meal. There was a chili cook-off going on in part of the complex, with vendors and all-you-can-eat chili, but we decided to pass that one by, too, on the principle of lots of very white people and lots of very strong chili don't rightly mix.

There were lots of horses in town, and the resulting excreta had Sara exclaiming every few feet, "Ohmygod, this horse poop stinks. Don't step in it. Ohmygod, this horse poop stinks. Don't get it on you. Ohmygod, this horse poop stinks." I think that it was the horse excreta more than anything else that drove us out of town after only a half hour of investigation.

Love Valley. A fun place if you like horses. And if you're white.

Restaurant Review: 521 BBQ & Grill, Indian Land, SC

We heard about 521 BBQ & Grill from my sister Karen, who mentioned that friends had eaten there and liked the food, so on Saturday morning we headed down US 521 (hence the name) to Indian Land, so named because the Catawba tribe lives in the area.

Sara and I had passed by this restaurant while travelling on several occasions without noting its presence because of poor signage:



You can see that, although there is plenty of room above that awning to affix a large, prominent sign, all that the owners currently have is a mini-sign in dark colors that make it hard to read what is advertised; further signage is painted on the window, but as you can see, when there are cars parked in front of the restaurant, the signage on the window is hard to see, too.

There was a good bit of business in the restaurant when we entered for lunch. A medical facility is just down the road, as is a local fire department and police department; three cops were eating at the time we entered.

The waitress took our drinks and left us to check out the menu. I ordered a BBQ tray:



Sara had the BBQ plate, which has more side items:



In addition, I had some fried mozzarella sticks. The BBQ was a good mix of outside brown and inside white meat, a little dry; portions were a bit stingy compared to other BBQ places we've eaten at. Three sauces were available: vinegar-based eastern NC sauce; sweet brown tomato-based sauce typical of Memphis (Sara said it tasted like Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce) and yellow mustard-based SC-style sauce, this latter tasting much like Maurice's BBQ sauce. Hush puppies were hand-formed and edible, otherwise unremarkable. French fries were the typical BBQ joint crinkle cuts; a large pile of these in the tray, to fill it out; without them, the tray would have looked rather empty with just the BBQ and pups.

The waitress was efficient and kept our drinks topped up. I noted that the staff was entirely female, as a matter of fact; waitresses, cashier and cooks, all.

The food was average pork BBQ, pretty much what you find throughout North and South Carolina. I'll give 521 BBQ & Grill a 3 on my 5-scale of BBQ restaurants: 3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management. We'll eat there again if we happen to be in the area and craving BBQ, but have no reason to make a special trip for it. They're hurting their potential business by not improving their signage, would get more customers if people could identify this storefront as a BBQ restaurant when passing by on the highway.

Restaurant Review: Porky's Bar-B-Q, China Grove, NC

Just off of US 29, in an area where I-85, US 29 and US 601 all come together.


View Larger Map

Here's the sign:



Here's the exterior, quite attractive:



With the requisite pig décor:



The interior has a lunch counter and plenty of both booths and tables:



They had TV's scattered throughout, so you could watch news or sporting events. It's actually quite a large BBQ restaurant, with a huge parking lot. The decor is mostly photographs of cars from the muscle car era, and lots of newspaper clippings of local events. They even have a "Boss Hog" room:



But what about the food, you ask? They have a wide selection of short-order favorites in addition to barbecue, and they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sara ordered a large barbecue plate, and I ordered two large sliced barbecue sandwiches:





Sara regretted ordering fried squash, as it turned out to be frozen rather than fresh. The hush puppies were hand formed and edible, which is better than we have found in many barbecue restaurants. They weren't the best hush puppies we have eaten, though. The pork barbecue meat was sliced as we both requested; not much of a smoke ring in evidence, and not much smoke flavor, either. Still, it was properly tender, if a bit dry (order your barbecue chopped if you want to be able to properly moisten it with sauce). Porky's had two barbecue sauces on hand, a vinegar-based Eastern NC sauce (Sara pronounced it mostly vinegar and otherwise flavorless) and a dark brown tomato-based sauce that probably came from a commercial gallon jug, not much tang and a little too sweet.

Sara had thought about ordering banana pudding for dessert, but after she observed the waitresses manufacturing it behind the lunch counter using a 1-gallon can of commercial pudding glop and commenting loudly enough for Sara to hear about how many bananas to put into it, she decided to skip on the banana pudding. We skipped on the desserts, as a matter of fact.

Service at Porky's was quick and efficient, with our waitress only making one mistake when she poured iced tea into my Diet Coke. She caught herself and brought me a new one, so it was all right in the end.

After lunch we drove home via Albemarle, North Carolina, and stopped in at the Sonic Drive-In there, and ordered milk shakes for our delayed dessert. The waitress roller-skated our order out to us. If you're an American Idol fan, this particular Sonic is the drive-in that Kelly Pickler worked in during high school.

I'll give Porky's Bar-B-Q a three on my five-scale of BBQ restaurants: 3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management.

Mint HIll, NC Farmer's Market, 26 June 2010

We didn't go far afield today, just to a farmer's market in nearby Mint Hill, North Carolina. Sara has a love of fresh fruit and vegetables, so summer is her season.

Unfortunately, the farmer's market turned out to be a crafts fair instead:





In addition, they had Civil War reenactors present:





Grisly medical procedures were promised as part of the day's entertainment:



After which everyone could eat some barbecue:



To be fair, there was one vendor selling fresh vegetables and fruits at the farmer's market. Sara bought fresh tomatoes and peaches. The market area is set up as a sort of old-timey village, with buildings scattered about featuring various professions: a blacksmith's shop, doctor's office, general store, and a new assayer's office being constructed. It's a nice way to pass an hour.

Restaurant Review: Gary's Bar-B-Q, China Grove, NC

On Saturday Sara and I ate at Gary's Bar-B-Q in China Grove, NC, which is northeast of Charlotte on US 29. According to the menu, it's been around since 1941, and occupies an old Gulf Oil service station. Here's the sign:



Here's a shot of part of the exterior:



The interior is decorated with antique tin advertisement signs, so many that it appears to be the Elephant's Graveyard of tin signs:





We both ordered pork plates; here's mine:



And here's Sara's:



There were two different barbecue sauces; one was a Lexington-style with vinegar, tomato and red pepper, the other was a tomato-based sauce similar to Kansas City-style sauces; this latter sauce, even though it was in a proprietary Gary's bottle, tasted very much like a commercial sauce.

The waitress was professional and attentive, keeping our drinks topped off and providing sample cups of Brunswick Stew and Banana Pudding, a nice touch not often seen in restaurants:

Brunswick Stew

Home-made Banana Pudding

The food was only average. The barbecue meat was flavorful and moist, and was the best part of the meal. Hush puppies were oversized spheres of dry cornmeal, basically inedible by my standards. French fries were freshly cooked crinkle cuts, standard for a BBQ place. They, too were rather bland, needing some seasoning to perk them up. The sample cup of Brunswick Stew was good; it's not offered as a substitute for fries or hush puppies, however. I'd think that the restaurant should be able to let you have the stew as a substitute for two other sides.

The sample cup of banana pudding was freshly made and good, although I'm not really a fan of that particular dessert.

Gary's has Cheerwine and Diet Cheerwine in addition to the usual soft drink offerings. Those are North Carolina soft drinks with a cherry flavor and color. I had the Diet Cheerwine.

For a rating I'd have to split food and service for Gary's; the service was better than the food, qualifying as good to excellent, while the food qualified only as average: 3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management. So 3/5 on the food and 4/5 on the service.

We noticed that in that China Grove/Salisbury/Granite Quarry area, there were many restaurants advertising barbecue, so we'll be up again in that area in the future.